Trayvon Martin, victim of Patriarchy and possibly pre-meditated murder

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#justiceforTrayvon, feminism, hate crimes, hoodies, patriarchy, Trayvon Martin, Zimmerman

On February 26th, 17 year old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed while walking back to a house he was visiting with his father from a convenience store. His death has gotten big publicity for several reasons: it is viewed as a hate crime, it was a devastatingly sad murder against a teenager, and there have been no consequences put on the man who killed him.

Trayvon Martin was a young black man and was wearing a hoodie the night he was killed. Zimmerman, the man who killed him, was supposedly suspicious of him and cited the hoodie as the reason.

 I own six different hoodies in different colors, two are black. One I wear more than the others. My son, who is a toddler, owns two hoodies. Even my parents who are in their 60’s wear hoodies. And teenagers- what teenager in America doesn’t own a hoodie? Old Navy has been pumping up hoodie advertising for several years, growing their popularity.

On line, they say:
“Old Navy hoodies can be worn for layering or alone to create versatile appeal. Hoodies provide warmth and are great for all ages. We carry hoodies in many different fabrics from fleece to velour to cotton. Decorative lines and graphics add interest to an ordinary hoody. Hoodies in short sleeves and long sleeves for men, women and children allow for year round wear.

So, if I wear my hoodie outside, will I be shot? That wasn’t in the ad.

The million hoodie march that took place last week in New York made that exact point. Wearing a hoodie doesn’t make you suspicious. In fact, people all over the country wore hoodies last week in support of Trayvon. Pictures of people in hoodies were posted on facebook. Even yesterday, people wore hoodies to church and were still marching in various regions of the country.

Chances are, I won’t be shot if I wear a hoodie or if I wear a hoodie and I’m shot, it probably won’t be blamed on the hoodie. Why? Because I’m white.

But Zimmerman isn’t a racist, we have been told.

I’m not sure why Zimmerman was wandering around with a gun pursuing teenagers, or anyone for that matter. That’s terrifying. When people are in the society and cannot control themselves from acting violently, they need to be locked up. Now he has a lot of attention on him, so he’s not hurting anyone, but when no one’s looking- who might he kill next?

And why wasn’t he charged? Still he hasn’t been charged.

Last week, right in the middle of Stop Street Harassment Week, a lot of attention was brought to the Trayvon Martin case and people were really speaking up about it and organizing through social media outlets. Perfect timing because essentially, that’s what it was. Street harassment that ended in a hate crime.

A lot of street harassment is perpetrated by men toward women and is often of a sexual nature, but men can also be victims. Trayvon Martin is a perfect example of this.

So- how does street harassment translate to Trayvon’s case? First- not all street harassment is of a sexual nature. If it is of a sexual nature, it’s not about sex. When sexual comments are made to someone in a sexually objectifying way, that is verbal violence. Unwanted sexual advancements are a form of violence. They are not about sex, they are about power and control. Street harassment may be sexually objectifying comments and comments of any kind meant to intimidate, gropes, sexual and physical assault, rape, or murder. In Trayvon Martin’s case, it was street harassment that ended in Zimmerman pursuing Trayvon and killing him.

We live under a system of Patriarchy that demands men be over everyone. Well, what about other men?

Patriarchy demands men be over other men and Trayvon’s age was a factor. Younger people and those considered weaker are to be dominated in the system of Patriarchy. Trayvon wasn’t even an adult yet, so he was an easier target for Zimmerman to prey on. Patriarchy demands the strongest survive and in this case, the stronger man is going to be older and the one waiting in the shadows with the gun.

Trayvon was a young man, he was only 17 and to look at his pictures and see his young eyes and smile, makes my heart hurt. I can see the eyes of my son in his eyes because they are innocent still. It hurts to think of this happening to my son. It hurts to think of this happening to anyone’s son. It hurts to think about what happened to Trayvon because he had so much life to live and someone took that away.

The push for justice is about making the hatred stop, assuring that this doesn’t happen again and to say, ‘hey, you can’t just get away with lynching black teens because you say they look like crooks because they are wearing hoodies.’

If the hoodie was really the issue, there would be law suits against Old Navy, Hollister, Gap, Aeropostale, Walmart, Target, and any number of other stores that sell hoodies.

Patriarchy says men must protect their women and children, meaning their kind. What other excuse did Zimmerman have to be outside looking for people to shoot? African American men have been criminalized in the media and the highest number of men in jail are African American, often because they are targeted. Racial profiling goes both directions, both against African American men. Race based stereotypes say white men are innocent and African American men are guilty or suspicious.

“While people of color make up about 30 percent of the United States’ population, they account for 60 percent of those imprisoned. The incarceration rates disproportionately impact men of color: 1 in every 15 African American men and 1 in every 36 Hispanic men are incarcerated in comparison to 1 in every 106 white men.”

So if we give Zimmerman some innocence in the situation, we can assume that he was not necessarily targeting Trayvon and he was afraid because of built up stereotypes of black men and his underlying beliefs about black men being criminals because of how they have been targeted by law enforcement and the prison system. But there are other factors involved.

The arguement is: Zimmerman was a man of color too. Yes, but he isn’t black and stereotypes are still alive and well. Just because you are a person of color doesn’t mean you are not racist against other people of color. Zimmerman also has a history of being violent- he was arrested in 2005 for battery of a police officer and for resisting arrest violently. There is absolutely no reason that this shouldn’t be investigated further.

And- Why was anyone but an official police officer patrolling an area with a weapon?

No one wants to walk out of their house and see random men with guns supposedly trying to protect them. Who then is to protect you from them?

Why did Zimmerman pursue Trayvon?

I’m not sure what happened, but from the media coverage, it sounds like Zimmerman targeted Trayvon, called 911 to have an alibi to say he was acting in self defense and then shot him. Trayvon might have tried to fight back for a moment, but had no chance against a man stalking him and preying on him with a gun. It sounds like there was no altercation, Trayvon was just shot. If Zimmerman was really afraid of this “suspicious” character, why did he pursue him?

Everyone can say the system is racist. There’s no doubt about that. In fact, because of racism, people can blow it off and say it was a black kid and he doesn’t matter or black kids always get themselves shot, but blowing it off doesn’t dismiss the fact that a teenage boy was walking outside at night and was murdered for no reason and the man who did it is still free and not being investigated.

When a person is walking home from the store they do not get shot.
When a person is unable to control themselves from being violent, they are locked up.
Something isn’t right.

Grrl Code: Trayvon Martin is a victim of street harassment and a hate crime. This violence is encouraged by the very structure of the system of Patriarchy. See the many ways Patriarchy is devastating to everyone, not just women.

Merimee Moffitt- The Interview, Part 3: Women Are Getting Stronger

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feminism, men and women united, patriarchy, women's health, women's rights

This is day 3 of the long weekender interview with Merimee Moffitt. Among her many roles, she is poet, teacher, activist, mother, and feminist and she rocks. If you are just checking in, her interview begins on Friday’s post and finishes up today with one of her poems.

Liza Wolff-Francis: What about people who are saying, “I’m not a feminist, but…” Do you think it’s about the word feminism?

Merimee Moffitt: Well, then I say, “Do you think we should be paid less for equal education? Women have equal job experience and equal education. You actually think they should be paid less because they are a woman? They shouldn’t get promoted?” They don’t agree with that.

Feminism is a tag word like communism to some fairly uneducated people. The pure idea of communism is a good idea- global sharing, hey! But as a political process, it hasn’t worked out yet. There are some good socialist programs, but they’re afraid of that word too. We’re programmed to be afraid.

I would guess that there’s a whole lot of TV shows from the 70’s or early 80’s that made jokes about feminists or feminism. The feminists are coming. The bra burners and bra burning didn’t happen and buckets of blood being thrown at soldiers didn’t happen, it’s all propaganda.

Liza: Really?

Merimee: Yeah. Turns out- government laws.

Liza: Wow. I didn’t know that.

Merimee: Hippies didn’t have bras to burn for one thing. And I never saw a woman burn her bra. There were a few flag burnings, but that’s a whole different issue. But the whole thing with buckets of blood being thrown on soldiers coming back from Vietnam, there have been investigations and it seems like it was a hyperbole that got out of hand. I lived in San Francisco for a whole bunch of those years and it wasn’t real, but that’s a whole separate issue too.

But feminism, people don’t like to be labeled for one thing.

Liza: Do you think it’s about the word though? Do you think women are against using the word “feminism,” or do you think they don’t want to be identified with women supporting women?

Merimee: That’s really a tough one because women generally do have support groups individually. Women have women friends. Women interact with women, the same way men interact with men, getting whatever they get- manism- machismo- I don’t know, they do their boy things. It’s a word that scares people. They think it means man-hating. My experience in the classroom with young people is that they think feminists hate men and I’m not sure where that comes from. But I’ve read feminist poems in the classroom to  students and gotten the response, when did you start hating men? Because I talk about not wanting men to be oppressive, violent, unfair, unbearing, insensitive- either as a political structure, the patriarchy, which they pretty much are in a lot of ways. You see a lot of big businesses where women are still overlooked for the promotion. It’s happening less and less because it’s illegal and in a sense, people are simply taking feminism for granted. In fact, they’re very surprised to hear how things used to be.

Liza: Well, even the stuff you’re telling me, I’m like “Wow!”

Merimee: Yeah and the first jobs women worked, a man could put his hands on you and lead you around, put his arm around your shoulder, maybe even pat you on the butt. There was no recourse. That wasn’t considered assault, that’s just the way guys were. So people are taking our rights for granted.  They see feminism, that the negativity in the word is abolishing men or something, men hating to the point that we don’t need men anymore, let’s just have women only stuff. There are some women like that, who may consider themselves feminist. But that’s a segment.

The time I got called a “man-hater” I spent a lot of time thinking about it deeply- and I think I have a poem about it, about loving men (laughs).

Liza: How do you think your feminism and your activism has worked its way into your poetry? They’re kind of interchangeable and I’ve heard a lot of your poetry, so I have an idea, but…

Merimee: Well, I don’t think I’m as angry as I used to be because I’ve claimed my space and my equality. I’m much less likely to blame somebody for my oppression. If someone is oppressing me, it’s often something that I’ve chosen, so I’m not as blaming. I’m not as mad. My most overt political activism was to join Code Pink, women for peace. I did that very actively for two years and it was physically quite hard on me and the person who was our leader that I worked with a lot. She was a recovering breast cancer person at the time and I was recovering from health issues and after two years, we were both just done. But, we do have a wonderful court case still standing in the federal court for discrimination against protestors. Some magic happened for us.

Code Pink was a women’s international peace group wearing pink. Pink to keep it light which isn’t really all that feminist of an idea. Pink representing femininity and happy silly side of things. Let’s have fun protesting the war. Let’s have fairy dust and blow bubbles and wear pink feather boas. We still got called traitorist bitches. We got spit at a time or two. We got flipped off. But mostly 90% or more people were supportive and talked seriously with us about rights for veterans. People coming up would stop and talk to us when we were out on the sidewalks protesting and picketing and wanting various politicians to live up to campaign promises and really work toward ending the so called war, the military occupation of Iraq. And that was a women’s group.

At one point we were doing a significant action that included dropping a big banner, a 60 foot banner that was quite heavy. It was about 15 feet wide and 60 feet long. We hung it from the parking structure across from Robinson Park and the head of the Vietnam Vets against the war wanted to start giving orders because it was a covert action.

We were going to get stopped and we had a goal to have it up for at least 15 minutes because they had done one in Washington and theirs had been up for 15 minutes in the senate building. And this gentleman just started giving orders and telling people what to do and I very happily said, “No, you can’t do that. She’s in charge. That woman, Becky, she’s in charge. She said we’re doing it that way and that’s what will happen and he looked at me like, ‘Okay, alright, just let me know if I can help, that’s all.’ And that felt good. It’s that kind of thing- not to cow tow just because they’re bigger and louder and stronger, they use their muscles when they need them (laughing).

Liza: What do you think about women supporting other women? You’re talking about that within that group too. How can women stay strong in the face of all that’s going on right now in the world and really support other women, even if sometimes they don’t agree with them?

Merimee: Boy, I certainly see something happening with the young women I work with at CNM because I’ve been there 9 years, so that’s enough time to see some change and before that it was juniors and seniors in high school. Women do not cow tow to men the way they used to. Women have a whole lot of business to take care of. They have their lives, their goals, their ambitions and they’re doing it and they generally have women in their support group. They have their sisters, mothers, friends, their babysitters. This is a glittering generality, but I’m seeing it.

Liza: So you’re seeing women supporting women.

Merimee: Women are supporting women in the ranks of- Middle America goes to CNM- the masses- all kinds of people and there’s not really a problem of men taking over the classroom, it just doesn’t happen, not with me at the helm anyway, it just doesn’t happen. Women are encouraged to speak up and have opinions and I don’t have to do much encouragement. It’s like women are right there. The whole thing that started years back where women stopped smiling all the time- they don’t have to have this shit eating grin on their faces all the time for some reason we had to be that way, and then it became this deadpan look, and uh, no emotion shown. Women went through this thing, it’s worked well. They’ll smile when they want to and they’ll say what they want. If I say on some woman’s toes or step out of line, I’ll get told right away, but a woman or a guy in the classroom. Women are getting stronger.

Liza: Do you ever see women fighting over men?

Merimee: It’s almost like women don’t even notice men anymore. (laughing) Now, women in my age group, yes. Not in the classroom, there’s very little flirting. They’re just not there to do that. They come in dressed like they want to dress, reflecting their mood and what’s convenient for them. It is no longer a man’s world. We’re winning and they’re taking it for granted. But that’s the scary part because there are some evil powers that will take those rights away. And gladly if they could.

A couple of afterthoughts:

Planned Parenthood just took this huge hit. It’s a huge hit against women. And those rights were hard won. We can’t let them take our health care and our right to choose, whether we have a mammogram or use birth control or have an abortion or the day after pill, we don’t want Newt Gingrich deciding when we should have our babies or when we should get mammograms. That’s sort of a disconnect, but those are basic rights. Maslow’s hierarchy is your basic rights have to be covered. It’s basic human rights. We have to watch out for those and protect those.

Matrifocal Point blog note: This Weekender’s Grrl Code is this last quote of Merimee’s. Grrl Code: An important part of feminism is to understand that it’s not over. It’s not going to be over. The power structure is so male dominated. Like I say to my daughters, old farts are going to die off and there’ll be a chance. At least half of the people in our power structure need to be women. And there’s a lot of good things happening. Last time I checked, there were more women getting graduate degrees than men and there is a problem with power women getting men.

Here is one of Merimee’s feminist poems. It was transcribed from an audio-recording and the line breaks are of the transcriber, not by Merimee. Enjoy

The World in a Word by Merimee Moffitt

Raise your hand if you’re a feminist today.
Once considered a radical notion,
Feminism is again a dirty word outside this inner sanctum
That’s propaganda, like you need a Hummer or Gloria’s fish needs a bicycle
Feminism is four syllables rich, not some puny explative.

Feminims rolls of the tongue like fertility and flirtiness,
the silt and sand of the Nile, the hot sun of New Mexico chiles,
but uterus envy, kind of a clunker,
the root of misogyny waving its wand at you and me
Get back Rosa, Get down from that glass ceiling
Hillary, know your place, nutcracker.

Uterus envy schools women into ridiculing ourselves
a five syllable pre-emptive strike from those
who would have us silent, compliant
like when good girls didn’t tell, when good girls
didn’t ask why we paid for our lives to be his wife.

Women with voice and confidence are feminists now.
Our wailing sirens lure, our hair entices, yet feminists
do not deny a right to choose, anyone’s right to ambition.

Power pricks trick girls into belittling themselves
advertising the vagina as empty space
no one home, a nothing until his presence and only his presence,
his fleshy key the only key?
Feminists can’t stand Rapunzel’s tower-
pining away, wasting their days
Oh, Oh where is my darling prince? Back then, Women coined the motto
Fuck housework, not literally sex with doornobs and broomhandles, unless of course…
let me deconstruct for you, toilets and washing machines
are not a life’s worth of fascinating,
Pick up your own damn socks was the first step,
honestly, ask your moms.

Males were dropping socks and underwear all over America
until feminists said No, no more.
The little lady’s job description was to clean up his shit,
so lots of stopped being little and stopped being ladies,
stopped with the nice. Feminism brings us the “she” and “her”
Women in text books, title IX, Feminism demands my body is mine,
keep your creepy translations of the Bible out of my womb, please
and off his ass. What a place for the Bible for God-fucking-sakes!
God likes sex by the way, she invented it.

I grew up with girdles and garter belts, tortuous bras,
principals, bosses, patting my ass, not one domestic violence law.
We’re not so far from the burquas, the chadors
We’ve come a short way sisters, in fifty years,
job for job, hers and his, 78 cents on the dollar still America
Come out of the closet America and join the feminist world.

Revel in womanhood,
womanist, feminist, liberty, justicia,
proud words,
our hope for the future
Our world in a word. Our word in our words.
Que viven las feministas!

3 Brutal Consequences of Patriarchy

Tags

feminism, homophobia, patriarchy, Rutgers, Tyler Clementi

There has been a lot of obvious women hating going on in the United States recently and directly related, there has been a lot of talk lately about women’s rights, gender oppression, and patriarchy. There has not been a lot of discussion on what patriarchy is. Gender oppression is a direct result of patriarchy, as is the fight to take away women’s rights. I am going to give three very real consequences of Patriarchy, but first, here’s a short definition:

Patriarchy is the system in place that demands gender oppression in order to survive. In it, the male gender acts as the authority figure in all aspects of life. Gender oppression is institutionalized- the very foundation and structure of society depend on men being over women, this includes government, laws, media, religion… This is the system we live under.

There are many consequences of Patriarchy, here are three and how they are consequences.

1. Toward the end of February of this year in Madison, Wisconsin a 70 lb 15 year old girl was found barefoot and starving on the side of the road. She had been enslaved in a basement and sexually abused as well as starved and physically and psychologically tortured. The report from the doctor who examined her described her as a victim of “serial child torture with prolonged exposure to definite starvation.”

This incident is a consequence of Patriarchy. Why and How? Patriarchy demands as a system that some people have power over others, specifically that men have power over women and girls. The system demands strict adherence to gender roles and that means men over women, even if that means using violence. Yes, but this was a story that was clearly over the line, someone might argue. Absolutely it was, but the existence of Patriarchy allows these things to happen because it advocates for keeping girls and women in their place no matter what.

The fact that another woman was participating in the girl’s torture, indicates hatred of herself as a woman projected onto the girl. Internalized hatred of girls and women. It is also possible she was being abused by the two men in the house, but it is not clear exactly what was happening in the situation. Getting rid of Patriarchy (I know, easier said than done) will drop rates of violence against everyone, especially women and children.

2. The second example of a consequence of Patriarchy is the case of Tyler Clementi, the gay Rutgers student who committed suicide in 2010 by jumping off New York’s George Washington Bridge after being harassed by his roommate for being gay. Steven Altman, the attorney said his client, the young man harassing Tyler, Dharun Ravi, had “acted like a teenager, not a criminal.”  Ravi posted to his Twitter account that he videotaped Clementi “making out with a dude” two days before Clementi killed himself. It is being seen as a hate crime. The trial was finishing up yesterday March 13, 2012.

This is another sad, but interesting consequence of Patriarchy because it is two-fold. First, Patriarchy holds that men must be over women or anything feminine even if that means using violence. Being gay is seen as feminine or unmanly because of definitions by the Patriarchy of masculinity, so harassing someone to make their behavior stop and so they conform to the system is acceptable under Patriarchy. The second piece of this is that Patriarchy pushes for hate crimes in it’s very nature of demanding male dominance. In order for there to be male dominance, men also must adhere to strict gender roles, which do not include being gay. A gay man could be the most manly man around- into trucks and cars and sports and math and every stereotype pushed on men according to their gender, but if he’s gay, he cannot regularly assure women will be beneath him. He does not fit the mold required for men under Patriarchy, so he is unacceptable and men who are insecure about themselves, the world, the role of men in the world, and gender roles will harass him and may even be violent against him. Is it the behavior of a teenager? Maybe, but this is how our Patriarchal culture trains everyone, especially boys and men.

3. The third example is the legalizing of medical malpractice against women. What?

Women in Pennsylvania, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Idaho, Indiana, Missouri, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Arizona may not get to hear all of their medical information if the doctor doesn’t want to tell them and there is no consequence for that. Prenatal testing during pregnancy is to identify medical conditions that affect a fetus and also a woman. Some of these medical conditions can be treated and sometimes a woman chooses to have an abortion due to the medical condition the fetus has. In the aforementioned states, a doctor is allowed to withhold information that they think could lead to an abortion and not be sued as a result. These are called “wrongful birth laws” and they allow doctors to put their own personal beliefs first, without any risk of being sued.

“Wrongful birth” lawsuits are filed when a woman doesn’t get medical information that might have led her to get an abortion, and she could have a severely disabled child or she could even die. Women’s lives are also at risk to save the fetus because a doctor does not have to disclose what problems there are if abortion could be considered. Very scary. Pregnant women should ask their doctors if they are pro or anti-choice before choosing them to be their providers.

This is a direct consequence of Patriarchy. It is men controlling women’s bodies. It assumes women do not have the ability to speak for themselves or to make decisions for themselves and therefore make decisions for her and take away any possibility of legal recourse for her later. It’s like they took away two rights in one with those bills. Don’t decide for yourself and don’t speak up for your rights or complain. These bills have silenced women before they even spoke. Withholding information from people is always scary. Patriarchy at its finest.

GRRL CODE: As women, we must speak up for our rights. We must speak up against the system of Patriarchy. It so obviously oppresses women, but it oppresses all members of the society and hurts us all. Attempt to analyze the world around you from a woman centered lens and don’t stay quiet about what you see.

Post by: Liza Wolff-Francis

To Answer Eleanor Roosevelt And Fill Her In On Darrell Issa and Rush Limbaugh

Tags

Darrell Issa, Eleanor Roosevelt, feminism, patriarchy, Rush Limbaugh, Sandra Fluke

Eleanor Roosevelt

There have been arguments over the years about whether Eleanor Roosevelt was a feminist because she opposed the Equal Rights Amendment. That argument and discussion is for another post. Today I want to remember a small amount about who she was and to address a couple of questions she posted in Good Housekeeping back in 1940 in a piece she wrote called “Women in Politics.”

There is so much amazing history about her and if I went through it all, I’d never get to the questions in the piece she wrote. But a few things about her:

Eleanor Roosevelt became active in the social reform movement of the Progressive Era (which included fighting government corruption, capitalism based corruption, and a push for women’s suffrage). Her participation in this movement taught her the power of organized political reform and the process necessary to legally effect fair labor practices. She was greatly influenced by the incumbent president FDR and was paid attention to more than some women activists because of their relationship and then marriage.

Eleanor was a huge support of working women and she was committed to women’s participation as voters, party leaders, and department heads. She worked to oppose child labor, to limit the number of hours an employer could force a woman to work, and to remedy the unsafe and exploitative conditions of many women-dominated workplaces. After working with women labor activists, she supported women’s full inclusion in unions, the living wage, birth control, and the right to strike and bargain collectively.

When some Americans blamed working women for displacing male “breadwinners” during the depression, Eleanor Roosevelt defended women workers at her press conferences, in articles and speeches, and on the radio.

Her activism and radical thinking was continuously criticized and in her role of First Lady, all of her behavior was scrutinized, but she continued in the fight.

Check out her entire piece from Good Housekeeping January 1940, but here are a few of the points and questions here from what she wrote. I respond to them after each one.

Eleanor Roosevelt Point 1. We are about to have a collective coming of age! The women in the United States have been participants in government for nearly twenty years. I think it behooves us to look back on this period in which we have been serving our apprenticeship and decide what our accomplishments have been, how much good our education has done us, and whether we really are able to consider ourselves full-fledged citizens.

Addressing this in 2012:

Yes! We are about to have a collective coming of age! Women are about to have a collective coming of age.

Feminism is a movement that is continuously moving. Yes there are goals, but there is also ever-changing opposition to women being equally valued, respected, heard, and present as men. We absolutely must look back and see that we are out of the apprenticeship and full on in the game and though we have had a lot of accomplishments, the society in which we live does not allow for women’s presence. This has of course been clear to many of us for years, but some people who couldn’t previously see the oppression of women or were able to blow it off as no big deal are seeing things at least a little bit more clearly as recently right wing leaders held a committee on contraception and told women they could not participate under the guise of religious freedom. Many women are saying: ‘but what about my religious freedom? I want a voice!’

If that didn’t do it, Rush Limbaugh called a woman speaking about contraception as a medical necessity for many women a slut and a prostitute, further establishing and reinforcing the belief that women who want access to contraception are sluts. And of course, demonstrating to women that if they speak up for their rights and what they believe, they will be shamed into silence. All this craziness is not new.

Eleanor, you saw these attitudes in your day. It is a programming of the society on women. Women are bad. Women are dirty. Women are objects to be looked at. Women are second class. Same ol’- same ol.‘

Yes it was horrible to call a nice woman like Sandra Fluke a slut, but that’s not the worst part of it. The worst part was that he  programmed that into everyone’s minds that women are sluts and will be called out for speaking up.

72 years later Eleanor, and no, we have not made a lot of progress. Women and our awesome men allies around the country have stood up in protest to show their outrage, but the committee, the name-calling, the programming of America about women- it’s all being rationalized and is at risk of being blown off and remembered as: ‘Oh yeah remember what that guy said? Well, she was talking about birth control. He was just kidding. You know how men are.’

It needs to be remembered in the following way: The men fighting for Patriarchy, which oppresses women in every area of life to the degree that it promotes violence against women in order to maintain it’s hierarchical structure, have taken drastic public measures to exclude women in talks about their own bodies and to silence them when they objected.

This is not something to remember lightly or to forget. It must be at the tips of our tongues and the edges of our brains at every moment, ready to pounce.

Back to your question Eleanor:

Yes, our education has helped us, but we are still paid less than men, even if we have more education than them. Often it happens that we are more aware of our oppression and yet must continue to live under the system which oppresses us and be subject to offensive and degrading attitudes that drive and are driven by that system, fighting against it, but discouraged by the slow progress and backlash.

E. R. Point 2. Where did we start and how far have we come?

The answer to this could be a book, it has been, quite a few in fact. But the short sweet answer. We have come a long way. I said we hadn’t gotten very far, but we have, it’s just a slow process. You know where we were before. We used to be property, like livestock. We weren’t able to work outside of our homes. We weren’t allowed to vote. We weren’t allowed in government. Okay, so yes, things have changed, but women are still not equally in government positions and in general, we’re sexualized, objectified, and regularly hurt or killed by violence. There’s a long way to go in every arena of life.

E.R. Point 3. Twenty years ago, when we were granted the right of suffrage, some people thought that women were going to revolutionize the conduct of government. Yet all we were given was the right to vote. Men had had the vote on a fairly universal basis ever since the country was established—without achieving Utopia. Everyone knew that corruption still existed, and that the gentlemen did not always devote themselves to their civic duties in the unselfish and ardent manner that might be expected in a democracy. In 1919, however, this fact did not seem to prevent the belief that all desirable reforms would come about by the granting of suffrage to women. Alas and alas, the reforms just did not happen.

We are still fighting Eleanor. The reforms have still not completely happened. But we continue to demand our rights and that we not be treated as second class citizens.

E.R. Point 20. In the old days men always said that politics was too rough-and-tumble a business for women; but that idea is gradually wearing away. There is more truth in the statement that men have a different attitude toward politics than women. They play politics a little more like a game. With the men, it becomes a serious occupation for a few weeks before election; whereas women look upon it as a serious matter year in and year out. It is associated with their patriotism and their duty to their country.”

Men are making it too “rough-and-tumble” for women by excluding us when it is our right to participate. For women, the political is personal. The laws are written all over our bodies, our voices, our healthcare, our access to resources, our families, the money we make (or don’t), and whether we are protected or not from violence. Now more than ever, it is vital that women are full participants in the society.

Are we full fledged citizens in the society? Still trying to be.

-Liza Wolff-Francis

Rush’s Real Crime- Reinforcing a Framework That Women Who Want Contraception Are Sluts: See What Was Missed In The Outcry Against Him

Tags

@Rushlimbaugh, contraception, feminism, misogyny, patriarchy, Sandra Fluke, war on women

Rush Limbaugh called Sandra Fluke a slut. Sandra Fluke, the law student who stood up for women’s right to access contraception, the same one who was barred from testifying at Darrell Issa’s hearing on contraception. Rush Limbaugh has shown himself to be a misogynist, so when I heard that he said this, I was disgusted, but not surprised.

When I heard Obama called her and asked how she was handling the things said about her and thanked her for speaking out, I was proud of our president. A male president of the United States of America should be an ally for women, but we all know that has not been the usual course of presidents.

So I read a couple of articles about Rush’s behavior, and how he issued an “apology” when he saw advertisers were taking their ads from his show.  but I hadn’t read or seen what Sandra Fluke actually said. Then I read what she said and what he said. And yes, he called her a slut but, in my opinion, that was the very least of what he said.

First, if you haven’t already read Sandra Fluke’s testimony, read it! She is articulate and brilliant and the examples she gives of friends who have needed contraception for other health concerns that do not include preventing pregnancy are sincere, moving, and powerful. If she had been talking about contraception as birth control rather than as medicine, that would have been fine too, but that’s not what she was saying.

I want to quote one piece of what she said that I thought was particularly eloquent and profound. She has been talking about how women at her school, because it is a Jesuit institution, have not been able to afford contraception that they have needed for medical conditions. She then says:

“We did not expect that women would be told in the national media that we should have gone to school elsewhere.  And even if that meant going to a less prestigious university, we refuse to pick between a quality education and our health. And we resent that in the 21st century, anyone think it’s acceptable to ask us to make this choice simply because we are women.”

I want to make it very clear how well Sandra Fluke speaks, how smart she sounds, and that she makes really good points. She is really articulate and fierce. This is the reason behind the slut shaming. This is why Rush Limbaugh attacked her. He tried to remove her power by re-naming her a slut. Again, she wasn’t even talking about sex. She was talking about contraception as necessary medication for certain medical conditions. But that didn’t matter. In the eyes of the right wing, she’s too powerful- they had to change it up, to make her something else. The way they do that is by changing the language.

Republicans have been known for having organized think tanks that do that, people who sit around all day racking their brains for ways they can confuse people into seeing things their way. It has been done with language throughout time. “Pro-life” is a great example. Who isn’t pro-life? That’s ridiculous, but it makes the issue polarized so people have to pick one side or the other. You’re either pro-life or anti-life. The issue of a woman’s choice for her body and life isn’t even there.

George Lakoff writes on this in his book, “Don’t Think of an Elephant.”

Lakoff’s basic concept is that by selecting the right language you can create a framework evoking a set of concepts supporting and “proving” your point of view. Once this idea-based frame is established it will be held even in the face of facts to the contrary. It has been found that “if a strongly held frame doesn’t fit the facts, the facts will be ignored and the frame will be kept.”

So Sandra Fluke, as a representative of women who want access to contraception was framed as a slut and a prostitute. Limbaugh has not just slut shamed her but created a framework where women wanting access to contraception are seen as prostitutes and sluts. It doesn’t matter if this is true. It isn’t, but now it has been framed this way so the truth will be forgotten.

Rush Limbaugh’s radio broadcast is the highest rated national radio talk show with the largest audience in America. It is heard on almost 600 stations by approximately 20 million people each week. He is also the author of “The Limbaugh Letter,” the most widely read political newsletter in the country. 

It saddens me to know that the nation of people that I love. The nation where I am from, is influenced and apparently captivated by someone who so deeply hates women.

When I heard all of what Rush said, I realized something: calling Fluke a slut and a prostitute were of course beyond awful, but the most hideous of what he said was this:

“So Miss Fluke and the rest of you feminazis, here’s the deal: If we are going to pay for your contraceptives and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it and I’ll tell you what it is. We want you to post the videos on line so we can all watch.”

Whoa! How was this not talked about? Or how did I miss the conversation?

So, he calls her a slut and a prostitute and then says he wants to watch the videos of her. She is talking about women needing to have the right to access contraception for medical issues, not about having sex. He put that on her, completely objectifying her- turning her into a sexual object.

He not only reinforces the framework that women are to be valued for sex only, but he said it in the voice of a perpetrator. It was threatening and menacing and suggesting blackmail. It was: this is what we want in exchange. It was: ‘Fine, take your contraception women, but you will pay for it by giving us a tape of you having sex.

Now he has framed that women wanting contraception is that they want to be watched having sex, that they want to be sexually violated, and that they owe men. He has reinforced the framework that women are for men’s viewing pleasure, for having sex with and to exist to pleasure men.

Rush countered confrontation about his hateful words by saying he would buy all the Georgetown women “as much aspirin as they wanted to put between their knees.” Again, he is framing that women are for sex and for the pleasure of men. By setting up these frameworks, women and what women say can be more easily controlled because even though our real concerns are being voiced, they are not being heard. The framework doesn’t allow for it.

Everyone is putting pressure for advertisers to stop supporting him. YES- we must do that- that’s super important. We also must be aware of these frameworks being set and reinforced, regularly call them out, and take away the platform for those who set them against women.

Grrl Code: Begin to decode the frameworks set up against us and speak out about them. See through the lies. Help others see how women are being targeted as a group, all women, not just Sandra Fluke or Democrats or feminists.

22 Years of Marching: San Antonio’s International Women’s Day March

Tags

feminism, International Women's Day 2012, patriarchy, San Antonio, Suzy Gonzalez, violence against women

Okay: here’s the post (past the update).

This morning I’m headed to San Antonio for their 22nd Annual Women’s Day March and Rally. Should be exciting! I’ll write more later and post pics, so tune back in. Thanks! Celebrate women!

Update: Got back home and my son woke up from at the end of the drive with a fever. We put a cold washcloth on his forehead, ran out for Tylenol, played a bit, and now he’s doing better and just went to bed. About to eat dinner and then work on the post. Still processing the day. It was interesting and I have a lot to say and some pics too- so please tune back in in a couple of hours- around 11:00 EST. Thanks!

Today, March 3rd, 2012, San Antonio had it’s 22nd Annual Women’s Day March and Rally. I live in Austin (moved here in August 2011- so still new to the area) and haven’t seen anything similar advertised here, so my partner, our one and a half year old son, and I headed down to S.A. We arrived about 9:45 a,m. for the march that was to begin at 10:00 by the Grand Hyatt at Market and Bowie and to head to the Plaza del Zacate or Milam Park.

Strong women: Domestic Workers in Action

It took an hour or so for the march to get going, so we waited around in the crazy wind talking to people. My partner and I had talked about him possibly meeting the baby and I at the end of the march for the rally because I wasn’t sure if men were going to walk with the women. I’ve been a part of marches in the past when men have been included and others when they have not. Today they were with us. Sometimes we need to march alone, but I do believe men must be a part of the fight against the War On Women and must fight in the War on Patriarchy. As for my partner, he’s an awesome ally and it was nice to have him there.

Looking around, my first thought was, ‘There are a lot of different groups here.’

I noticed what I thought was a Clothesline Project– with T-shirts speaking out about sexual violence, rape, incest. I made one of those t-shirts once. Empowering, moving, awful, amazing. A million words to describe it. This was not that. This was t-shirts hung on a line speaking out about the Hyatt. Not what I expected. Hmm.

I got lots of fliers. (I’m going to list them to then make a point in the end, but if you want to skim the fliers I got, please get beyond the list to my point). The ones I got were:

Don’t mess with Texas Women– about women’s health care and to rally against the states continued attacks on women’s healthcare, though there are two websites listed and the one highlighted in red is connected to a campaign to stop littering in Texas, but the other was linked to the Planned Parenthood Trust of South Texas.

“End Pornography and Patriarchy: The Enslavement and Degradation of Women.” It talks about: abortion, birth control, real sex education, Christian fundamentalists, LGBT issues and Roe v. Wade. I looked into it further and the site, Stop Patriarchy was started by Sunsara Taylor who is known for her passion around human rights issues.

I also got another flier advertising a march on Sat March 10th in San Antonio for Stop Patriarchy.

Code Pink– it’s a women’s organization who is anti- war.

National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day March 10th– This was a flier for HIV testing and San Antonio events for Friday and Saturday March 9th and 10th- the National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. By the way: Rock the Red Pump  is working to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS and I will be blogging about HIV and AIDS and women as will many other bloggers this next Friday 3/9. See more at www.redpump.org and of course tune in next Friday.

Dansa– Direct Action Network of San Antonio- for marriage equality and against the Hyatt for mistreating their employees

Ay, Que Chula! Youth Leadership Organization Fundraiser- “Outer Beauty Attracts, But Inner Beauty Captivates”- Photo finish, Hair sculpting, and nail art for youth $20.- put on by the Southwest Workers Union

Domestic Workers in Action of San Antonio

Revolution newspaper from the Communist Party

Texas Death Penalty Fact Sheet

Texas Coalition To Abolish The Death Penalty

Unite To Smash Sexism about exploitation of women workers and destroying capitalism.

Westside Dog Initiative– about alleviating the Stray animal overpopulation.

and

Hyatt Hurts Women’s Bodies– about corporate injustices toward women workers, injustices committed by the Hyatt

After the waiting, there was a prayer/ blessing done by an indigenous group. Then there was some talk about women’s rights and about the Hyatt and how they have mistreated their workers, especially women workers and a bit to sum up and then we began to march. These are some of the chants from the flier that were to be used during the march:

“We support labor’s fights for collective bargaining rights!”

“Que queremos? Fair wages! Cuando? Ahora.”       When this chant began, it was “What do we want?” And at first no one knew what to answer, so people answered several different things and ended up with, “Justice.” When do we want it? Now.

Yes, we do want justice, I just wasn’t sure at that point that we were all on the same page about what we are marching for and that is where I’m going with this.

“Down with corporate welfare. Up with national healthcare.”

Absolutely, but this is about women’s healthcare. At least it is for me. It has to be- the healthcare system in our nation is flawed at best, but women’s healthcare is under full attack. Women’s healthcare is a huge issue right now! Make it about that! Please! Uh oh. I was getting that anxious feeling in my stomach when I’m like, this is not what I thought and this is not what I want and Oh shit, there’s something big here that we’re missing.

“Hey Hyatt, you’re no good. Treat your workers like you should.” The Hyatt was right next to us, so we practically began with this chant.

I looked at my partner and said, “I’m here in San Antonio to protest the Hyatt, I mean to march for women. Wait, what am I here for?” He shook his head. “This should be about women’s rights.”

Yeah. Exactly.

The march was stopped in front of the Hyatt yelling at the building and the tourists. One of the women I was walking with said something to the effect of: ‘I’m here to march for women’s rights, not to protest the Hyatt. There’s a lot of other things going on around women, it’s a bigger issues, this isn’t why I’m here.’

Me neither.

The Hyatt may be treating women badly, but this is a symptom of a larger problem, one that reachers much farther than the Hyatt.

I met some awesome women from San Antonio and was excited to be there with the two to three hundred women that were there. But, I believe the issues were scattered and we have to pull it together to fight the system that oppresses us.

There was such a plethora of issues- many of them “women’s issues.” It shouldn’t be incredible to me how many there were, but it was, it is incredible. You saw how many fliers I got and how many organizations were there. All of them important organizations with important causes and all of them looking for more support.

This is it: women are concerned with a lot of different things. I am concerned and want to support all of those different things. Why? The world has a lot of issues that I am concerned about- sometimes it’s hard to know where to begin.

The issues I saw present at the march and rally:

abortion, contraception, labor rights, HIV and AIDS, war, pornography, patriarchy, enslavement of women, sex education, death penalty, unemployment, fair wages, issues with behavior of big corporations (the Hyatt being the example), women’s healthcare, the 99%, communism, who to vote for (there were two candidates present- Tina Torres (who I met and talked with and was really nice and down to earth), and a representative for Michele Petty was also present, though I did not see Ms. Petty), femicide in Juarez.

That’s a lot to address.

My concern was not the Hyatt. There are corporations all over America who are treating people badly. That’s a huge issue, but it is a symptom of Capitalism and of Patriarchy. International Women’s Day has a herstory of being about the fight for women’s labor rights (like back in 1908- but even in 1911 women were fighting for multiple issues that were not just about labor). The day has evolved into something more. I think we can address the individual issues, but as a group of people gathering to march for International Women’s Day, I believe we need to focus the issues toward women’s rights, not just labor rights.

These are the deeper issues:

Instead of yelling about how the Hyatt should treat its workers better, we need to encourage people to join the fight for women’s rights. We need to encourage women and men to stand with us. By yelling about the Hyatt, women’s rights are narrowed down to people not liking the Hyatt Hotel. This is much larger and people who work at the Hyatt and who stay there aren’t going to be able to change much of this, they are going to think, crazy feminists. I’m here to say: We have to dial down the crazy! We have to say, “you’re a woman, come join us” or “you have a mother, come join us. Fight for women!”

We must rally together to encourage the respect of women across the board. This means getting as many people on board to fight for women’s equality and rights to self, not isolating onlookers and making them want to distance themselves from the group.

When women are respected, Hyatt workers, domestic workers, women of all professions will be paid adequately, be given health coverage and maternity leave, not sexually harrassed, and will be treated well for the work we do.

San Antonio News 4 pulled me out of the crowd and interviewed me briefly about why I was there at the march. Who knows what they’ll air, if anything- haven’t been able to find it, but if they do, hopefully what I said won’t be out of context. In case this blog never sees it, let me tell you why I went.

I went to the march and rally because I am concerned about the state of women’s rights in this nation and about the gap of equality with men widening rather than closing. The more rights women lose, the more violence is perpetrated upon us. Why? Because we are seen as second class people. We are seen as ‘less than.’ As ‘not worthy,’ as ‘not as good as men.’ Patriarchy demands that we are second to men. Men benefit from that privilege. Meanwhile women have less and less say about our lives, our bodies and what we want in this world and in society. We have less opportunities and less access. And we are treated badly across the board (and in jobs like at the Hyatt or wherever). Women are in danger.

I went to the march to seek solidarity around how wonderful women are, how diverse we are (culturally, racially, socio-economically, sexuality, ability….) and how we can come together to fight and raise awareness about inequality based on gender. In a way, I got that, but not how I expected.

What I fear is this: as women, we have so many issues that are important for us and it’s easy to lose focus.

There were somewhere from two to three hundred women at the march and rally, all there for women’s rights, but divided up into a bunch of different issues. We need to focus our efforts and understand that these issues will all be addressed when women are respected and valued. Even the stray dog- Westside Dog Initiative- even animals will be valued more when women are valued because it is about changing a system that promotes ‘Power of some over others.’

So, ‘Come on Women,’ let’s focus, because really, what I saw was a great group of women and men who are concerned with how things are going and taking it in a bunch of different directions. It’s like that saying- a person who stands for everything stands for nothing.

We must stand for us because Patriarchy wants to make us not be able to stand at all.

Grrl Code: In a women’s march, women should be on the megaphones, not men. Men we need you as allies and to the women who led and the ones who stepped up, YES! And to all the people who came out- PROPS! Si se puede! Las mujeres jamas seran vencidas!

We must unite to fight this battle. It is about all these causes, but it is about women, women’s rights, and we must make sure we don’t lose that focus!

P.S.- One More Thing- Suzy Gonzalez!

Suzy Gonzalez, feminist artist and writer. She painted the painting that was on the T-shirt. Awesome!

This pic is of feminist artist, Suzy Gonzalez. She painted the painting (self portrait) of the image used for the T-shirts for the march/rally today. She is wearing one of the t-shirts, but check it out on the website for the march because it’s beautiful. She named it “Second” because women are often put second because of our bodies. She spoke at the rally and was very articulate about her art and issues around the oppression of women. I will wear the shirt with the image of her painting proudly. Thank you Suzy!

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In Solidarity!

I Always Thought I Could Be President: Capitalism & Patriarchy Say No

Tags

corporation as person, feminism, gender wage gap, media, Operation Rescue, patriarchy, presidential campaigns, women's right to choose

Growing up, I was told I could be anything I wanted, even president. As a young teen I realized no woman had ever been president and with that, I realized I couldn’t be anything- that had been a lie and I was pissed. I knew it wasn’t about my abilities, it was that I lived in a world that wouldn’t vote for a woman. That was just sad. Still is.

I didn’t want to be president, but I wanted to be able to. In one of my other posts a while back, I equated it to when I found out Santa Claus wasn’t real. I felt like I had been duped. Suddenly I saw the world in a different way. There was no Santa Claus giving gifts to everyone and there was no woman president.

Sure, Shirley Chisholm had run as did a handful of other women over the years and now Hillary was up there for being seriously considered. So, these days, it’s still about gender, but it has a new twist. It’s about money.

You have to have money from somewhere to fund your campaign. CNBC just ran a list of mostly Democratic candidates who have a lot of money, including Hillary and Bill Clinton, worth $85. million. Mitt Romney was up there with a net worth of $250. million. That’s so much money, it’s incomprehensible, especially when there are people in this nation who earn much less than $10,000 a year to live on. If you’re someone who doesn’t get those ‘Wall Street Occupiers,’ you at least have to say they have a point.

Now that corporations are considered people, as “people,” they can donate what they want to campaigns. This is a new development of Capitalism and also of Patriarchy. With the total amount of money spent on campaigns these days, even with the total that has been and will be spent for this upcoming 2012 election, I believe I could set up social programs to drastically alter the economic system of our country, giving everyone more access to wealth, resources, and opportunities. Seriously, with that kind of dough, I could make some serious change.

But could I be president? No, probably not. The culture under Patriarchy still values women less and therefore views women as less important, less effective, and less capable. So, it’s a hard sell to get women on the ballot and voted for. And, it’s a vicious cycle, Patriarchy does not value women. Because women are devalued, they are at risk of violence. When violence happens against women, people blame the woman and see it as the woman can’t take care of herself, even though it wasn’t her fault. In the larger world, one woman is a reflection of all women. People won’t vote for someone who they think is weaker and can’t care for herself or the rest of the nation.

Then there’s economics.

As the economic structure of the world under patriarchy is set up to pay men more than women because men’s role is seen as the family breadwinner, women are paid less and will definitely have a harder time funding campaigns with their money alone. Women must find a wealthy corporation that will act as a person and raise her up. So, to find that and keep it, what are deemed “women’s issues” are pushed more toward the middle, if they are addressed at all, and women must hang on for dear life just to stay in the game. Campaign financing and campaign ads- same deal, except you don’t have to to be a serious candidate to run whatever ad you want, you just have to be in the race.

If I had some money to throw around, I’d run for some office or another just to run my own campaign ads about how the current system hurts women and is set up to shame us and take away our rights. Ah, but alas.

The current issue (April 2012) of Mother Jones has an article in it under Out Front, called “Abortion Ad Nauseum” and in it, Tim Murphy talks about current issues with broadcast regulations. If a TV station finds an ad distasteful, they don’t have to accept ads, but they can lose their licenses if they refuse to run campaign ads. So what happens? Woman haters like David Lewis, an unemployed IT technician who is challenging the House Speaker John Boehner in the Republican primary in March is airing disturbing and exagerrated anti-abortion ads on TV of what are supposedly mangled dismembered fetuses.

The thing is, the unemployed IT guy David Lewis, isn’t the wealthy one. Note to self, not that I would hire an IT guy based on his politics, but with a little research, I surely wouldn’t hire someone who I believe is condoning violence against women by denying personhood rights to women. I’m a woman- it’s just self preservation. Anyway… Lewis is a recruit of “Operation Rescue” which has been fighting to make women second class citizens for years by taking away their rights to choose for their bodies and they have been violent about it.

“Operation Rescue” is an extremist anti-choice, anti-woman organization founded by Randall Terry. Randall Terry is an anti-choice activist who has run for different Republican political offices and lost in the past and he claims he is now a candidate for the Democratic Party’s nomination for President in 2012. Mother Jones reported that he bought 11 Superbowl ad spots and said he plans to buy 18 more to stop the “Holocaust.”

What an offensive thing- to compare a woman’s right to choose for her body to a program of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazis in WWII that had somewhere between 11 and 17 million people victims. Six million European Jews, plus Romani people, Soviet Prisoners of War, Polish, and Soviet civilians, homosexuals, people with disabilities, Jehovah’s Witnesses and other political and religious opponents, German or not.

Randall Terry’s likening abortion to the Holocaust is interesting since he could easily be likened to Hitler. He insists on women not having rights. Metaphorically, he sends women and our rights straight to the death camps. He is trying to divide the Democratic party to take votes from Obama, bring more attention to the anti-choice battle, and/or have a platform from which to run major anti-choice and anti-woman ads that have mangled fetuses. He wants to horrify and shame women and men alike into taking away women’s rights. And above all, it is all in the name of hating women.

So, I thought I always could be president, but these days I know I don’t have enough money and if the laws keep denying women the ability to make decisions for ourselves, I may not have the right to even dream about it. Hell, I might not even be able to wear what I want, much less have adequate health care options.

As examples of our nation, the men in the running to be in the final race against Obama (Santorum, Gingrich, Romney, and Randall Terry) are embarrassing examples of our nation and make me ashamed of the United States which these days does not seem so united.

Today is the start of Women’s History Month. I want to dream of a girl who will one day be president and will continue the fight against patriarchy so that there will be no violence against women and women will be free and equal.

Grrl Code: Celebrate women, all that we have done, the battles we have fought, the ways which we have supported each other and been able to work together. Never forget the battles we have won. Don’t close your eyes because they are coming to take what is ours the moment we aren’t looking. There is no rest in this beautiful battle, but we are all in it. Help other women realize, we are not alone. We need each other to continue this fight for women’s equality, rights, and justice and with that will come respect, safety, and honor.

A Bold National Move to Control the Underclass

Tags

abortion, control women, feminism, patriarchy, pro-choice, war on women, Women's Strike Force

What a great way to remove women’s rights, enforce that women are second class citizens, the underclass, and condone violence against women- push to make abortion and contraception illegal.

Who likes to talk about abortion? No one, not really. It just ain’t dinner table conversation. Well, pass the dinner rolls, the butter and my right to decide what I want for my body, including whether or not I want to eat dinner rolls at all.

Does this sound like much to do about nothing?

I went to a social work conference the other day and was talking with a woman who is a Republican and I asked her what she thinks about the strong push by the right wing to take away women’s rights. We talked about it some and she said that, though she is a strong Catholic, she has used the pill for years, believes in birth control and has been having issue with all of this stuff going on right now and has been to confession over it several times. But the abortion thing, “I can’t even think about it, it makes me sick,” she said.

Perfect! A lightbulb must have gone off in some right winger’s head the first time they realized people didn’t want to talk about it. They must have rubbed their palms together and laughed an evil laugh and said, ‘this is it!’ This is the issue to talk about to make sure women are the underclass and stay that way.

This is the issue that no one will really want to talk about and so easily and quietly, we will strip women of their rights to make decisions for themselves. Women won’t even want to comment on it because there is so much cultural shame around it and we’ll flash pictures of fetuses and tell horror stories about babies being killed if they do. Sure you’ll get some crazies but they’ll be blown off as extreme nazi-feminists.

We’ll assure women don’t have too much power ever and head toward them being only in certain jobs and primarily in the home, barefoot and pregnant. Pushing anti-aboriton and  anti-contraception laws- it’s the perfect plan.

And for women: The Perfect Storm!

The nation is moving toward taking whatever control it can over women and it’s happening state by state. More states are moving toward mandating ultrasounds before abortions, which assumes the woman is ignorant about her body and choice and often means she must schedule two different appointments, pay for the ultrasound, submit to being vaginally penetrated for an unneeded procedure even if she doesn’t want to have an ultrasound, and risk psychological harm by being forced to see images of the fetus.

Bigger picture: If women can’t make decisions about our bodies around abortion and contraception, that will translate to other areas as well, it already does. Women say No to sex, are ignored and subsequently raped. It happens all the time. Violence against women is upped when women don’t have rights for their bodies and selves. Don’t think this is just about abortion- it’s about controlling women, but nobody likes to talk about it all anyways.

In Georgia- Democratic Representative Yasmin Neal from the Atlanta suburb of Jonesboro, introduced HB 1116, which moved to legislate men’s bodies like laws are legislating women’s bodies by keeping men from having vasectomies unless needed to avert serious injury or death.

The bill reads: “It is patently unfair that men avoid the rewards of unwanted fatherhood by presuming that their judgment over such matters is more valid than the judgment of the General Assembly. … It is the purpose of the General Assembly to assert an invasive state interest in the reproductive habits of men in this state and substitute the will of the government over the will of adult men.”

Doug McKillip, a Republican Rep. from Athens, Georgia, who introduced the anti-abortion bill said he was disappointed in his colleague for taking “this opportunity to make light of a very important topic.”

Listen Doug McPhillip- this is an important topic. Yasmin Neal isn’t making light of anything. This is a serious point and a good one. Why should men be able to regulate women’s bodies? Why should government, which is primarily made up of men, be able to make decisions for women’s bodies? For the party who is anti-big-government, they sure have their government trying to control women’s every move.

In Iowa-

Republican Rep. Kim Pearson of Pleasant Hill introduced House Bill 2298, which is an outright ban on abortion, and includes criminal penalties of up to life in prison for those who perform abortions. Iowa Democrats accused House Republicans of pursuing divisive social issues rather than policies to boost job growth and the economy.

When are Democrats going to full on accuse Republicans of taking away women’s rights for their bodies. I’m concerned about jobs and the economy- absolutely- but I’m actually more concerned that we’ll get to a point when I can’t make decisions for myself at all, about anything.

In Virginia– others are concerned about women having rights as well and have formed a committee, Women’s Strike Force, to recruit and support candidates to defeat elected officials who back the ultrasound and so-called “personhood” bills.

I hate to think we won the right to vote but will lose the right to decide whether or not we want to have sex, what we want to wear, whether we want to be married, whether we can be sold, whether we want to be burned or killed, whether we want to be able to use contraception or have an abortion or not. It’s about being fully human, not an underclass that has to hide the decisions we make and are constitutionally unable to make decisions for ourselves.

Grrl Code: Help other women understand this is about our rights and making sure we don’t lose them because the more we lose, the more we lose power behind our voices and the more violence against us is upped. Even if you are against abortion, this is about choice. Women have been having abortions for thousands of years, this is about the right to choose what you want for your body and if abortion is the choice you make, to have that option be safe. If the choice is made to continue a pregnancy and have a baby, great, that too is your choice. We cannot let this be an issue that divides women, but one that brings us together. It’s about keeping our humanity.

Patriarchal Exploitation- Getting Over The Hopeless Feeling

Tags

activism, feminism, patriarchal exploitation, patriarchy, women, women's rights

Because the mainstream patriarchal outlook is a privileged outlook, it is seen as superior and the way to be. In reality, it oppresses half the population by trying to control women’s bodies, what women do, and the beliefs women have about themselves. It does this by setting up  laws to hate us, by perpetuating stereotypes and strict gender roles, and ultimately by condoning violence against us.

And yet, most people just see things as ‘that’s the way they are. They don’t see the truth: that women are treated in a way to keep us beneath men and that this encourages violence against us as an acceptable method of control. The good new is: it doesn’t have to be like this.

When I was younger, I went to Rock City, Atop Lookout Mountain, near Chattanooga, TN where you can see seven states from a single point. There, they had, and may still have, one lookout point where you could look through different colored glass and see the view through those colors. When you look through a different color of glass, at first it looks different and then after a short time, it’s just the way it is.

I imagine that suddenly seeing patriarchy is like going along in your life and thinking things are as they are and then you look through the blue glass and see them as different and from that point on, you can’t see them any differently. It becomes how the view is.

The world is not as it seems.

Days when I look at committees of all men making decisions about my body or when I see my country pass laws forcing rape of women in order to get abortions, when I see perpetrators of sexual assault walk away free while their victims are blamed, days when I see pop-star men who have been violent against a woman be rewarded, when I turn on the news and one woman after another has been killed and a thirteen year old raped, these are days I feel hopeless.

These are days I want to go back through Rock City and not ever look through the blue glass. I want to just believe I’m happy with life and that it doesn’t matter that my rights and choices are restricted and that I have fewer options for what I do with my life. I want to go back to the time when I believed I could do anything I wanted to do and not be concerned more rights will be taken away. But, I can’t. And actually, that’s a good thing.

Those privileged by Patriarchy don’t usually see the ills of the system because they don’t have a restriction of their rights and they can do everything they want to do. The world is how it is. The crazy thing about Patriarchy is that it doesn’t give women that privilege and yet, many women think things are fine.

Patriarchy has certain places for women: homemaker, wife, mother. There is nothing wrong with these three roles, but they are the only roles allowed for women under Patriarchy. Women can only be these three things and to want anything outside of these three roles is to be subversive and a rebel. Because of feminism and the fight for women’s rights, the changing economies, and the consumer culture where we always want more, women have been able to work outside the home and hold jobs in almost every field around, but under patriarchy, there are still certain jobs designated for women, like teachers, social workers, and nurses. They are all paid little, though they are some of the hardest and most important jobs to do.

If you are a woman and are happy with the world as it is right now, know that not all women feel like that. I want women to have more rights because with more rights all of us are more valued and are more protected from violence. I want to live in a world where opportunities are equal because it gives us all more possibilities. Your daughters may want more than what women have the right to now and the rights we have now are at risk. Your daughter-in-laws may want more. When your children are grown, you may want more. Your grandchildren may want more.

If you believe women should be happy with how the world is for women right now, consider this:

Being given the message that you are smart, makes you feel better about yourself and your ability to make things happen in your life. If you are a girl or a woman, those are not the messages you are given and you do not feel as good about yourself as you could.

If you can dream about doing something in the world that would be like a dream job for you, maybe that’s president, or a doctor, or a writer. If those dreams are really attainable, you feel excited about your life and empowered to be strong in yourself. Again, you feel better about yourself.

If you feel good about yourself, you are more likely to choose a partner to be with who will respect you and treat you well, a partner who is less likely to devalue you and less likely to be violent against you verbally, physically, sexually. If someone does treat you in an abusive manner, you will be more likely to kick them to the curb and move on.

We have been exploited by patriarchy for a long time. We have been working to change this and now many men (not all) are shaking in their boots. They’re unsure about what the world will look like if they have equal power to women and are afraid that who they are will be challenged, devalued, and lost.

“It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine” -R.E.M.

But it’s not the end of the world. It is just the beginning and it is the beginning of the rest of our lives. Which view will we take and how will it all go down? It’s easy to look around and wonder if hopeless is what we should feel. Then we get geared up again for the fight and BAM, we’re hit by an oncoming train.

Patriarchy is huge. It’s not going down easily. But this is all the more reason to Stand UP!

I am not hopeless about Patriarchal Exploitation because I know this is a long fight and that the fight is necessary in order for women to continue to be alive in this world. That is worth fighting for!

Grrl Code: Once you look through the blue glass, it is your responsibility to speak out against oppression against women. If you are not the ‘speak out’ type, speak to your friends and partners, challenge gender stereotypes with children, vote for candidates who support women’s rights. Remind yourself that the patriarchal outlook is a privileged outlook and therefore seen as the best way to see things, then remind yourself that this is a lie. Begin to uncover the lies we have learned about women and to reject them and confront them.

P.S. Tune in this tomorrow for the Weekender with an exclusive interview with one of Slam Poetry’s most radical women, Jessica Helen Lopez, who rocks the mic, our hearts, and our minds.

 

We Are In A Process of De-Patriarching Ourselves

Tags

abortion, feminism, oppressive language, patriarchy, pro-choice, reproductive freedom, ultrasound before abortion, violence against women

How many years have we lived under patriarchy? It depends on the history of your culture of origin, of course, but either way, at this point, it’s been too long!

A system that, at every turn, says men are better than everyone else and all actions must be taken to raise them up. A system that is designed around the notion that women are not human and therefore do not need to make decisions for anything and can be bought and sold. A system that only barely tolerates women speaking. It is a system that condones violence against women. A system that wants to control women in everything we do and tries to convince us that is because we are weak or inferior. It is time to up the battle because it’s trying to strip us of all of our rights one by one.

We have grown accustomed to patriarchy, but it is changing. We have been changing it and are on the path to eradicating it. I have always heard that saying, “no one likes change” and I have believed it. The truth is that we are creatures of habit, but it is a myth that no one likes change. It can make us very uncomfortable, but change can be good. Right now the system of patriarchy has come to a breaking point because of all the right wing push-back against the strides women have made to have control in life.

We are in a process of de-patriarching ourselves and that isn’t going to come without a battle.

For years, many women and enlightened men have been battling patriarchy, trying to overthrow it. Many others have been resisting it’s end with all of their mights. “NOOOO. I don’t want things to change,” they yell, fearful of what it will mean for their identities. How will they be the stereotype they were taught to be if women don’t have to be at home barefoot, pregnant and making apple pies?

But now, the issue has come to a tipping point. It will either send us backward or it will send us forward and the issue has come down to abortion.

But, it’s not just abortion. It is reproductive freedom. It’s control over women.

Peter, Peter pumpkin eater,
Had a wife but couldn’t keep her;
He put her in a pumpkin shell
And there he kept her very well.

So, the wife wanted to be a woman who does more than wifely duties, I presume, and Peter didn’t like that so he got her pregnant and trapped her.

Women see the trap of the pumpkin shell. Some are even leaving the GOP because of the extreme push against contraception.

I’ve never been a fan of calling it the Grand Old Party and I’m considering the acronym GAP for Grand Abortion Party because that’s all they talk about these days. For the party who wants less big government, they sure have the government all over women’s most intimate parts. That’s right men, you weren’t invited inside. This is a cultural rape. Women did not invite the small parties of men and the big system of patriarchy into our vaginas or into our wombs. Entry without consent, that’s rape. Stop raping women with your bills in the name of protecting us.

Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas already have ultrasound requirements. Looks like Virginia might be next. Unless women are listened to. On Monday, more than a thousand silent protestors lined the walkways to the state capital to protest two bills: one that says life begins at conception and the other that requires women in Virginia have a vaginal ultrasound before having an abortion. There are many more of us around the country who are against these bills. They aren’t okay in Virginia or anywhere. They aren’t okay in my country. I am an American, though these bills are headed toward making me not one. Little by little they strip my choice, humanity, and then my citizenship.

This fight is part of the process of depatriarching ourselves, but it’s ugly and it’s gonna be brutal. Know what? I am a woman who understands that the more rights women have, the less women are beaten and sexually assaulted, the less sexual harassment there is, the less gender based violence there is, and the more we are able to participate in the larger society, government etc. This is reason enough to continue to unite for the fight.

You don’t have to be for abortion. You do have to believe women can, should, and ultimately will make their own choices.

We must stop using the language of the oppressor. People who are  politically “pro-life” are actually anti-choice and we must name them as such. Pro-life is misleading. I’m pro-life, who isn’t? Hell, I love life. They are anti-choice and they call pro-choicers “pro-aborts,” that’s not accurate either, it’s about choice for women. They are changing the language and we shouldn’t support it.

Grrl Code: The patriarchy wants to keep us in a pumpkin shell, but the pumpkin has begun to rot. Get us out. The patriarchy is going to kill us if we don’t stand up and say ENOUGH!